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Surnames: Beekman
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/gh.2ADI/5248
Message Board Post:
(newspaper unknown)
February 24, 1914:
AGED FARMER IS FOUND FROZEN IN SNOW DRIFT
Eli Beekman, Living Near Banquo, Perishes in Own Dooryard
Perishing in a snow drift but a few rods from his own door, the body of Eli Beekman, about
77 years old, a lifelong resident of Huntington County, was found frozen stiff in the
coldest weather of the present Winter on his farm, one and a half miles south of Banquo
Tuesday morning.
Beekman had been out all night, his whereabouts unknown to his sick wife and his widowed
step-daughter, Mrs. Art Lanham, who made her home with them.
The ringing of the cowbell early Tuesday morning brought a neighbor to the Beekman home,
where he found the prostrate body of Mr. Beekman. Beekman, enfeebled by age, had taken
his milk bucket on his arm, and as he opened the door, he told his daughter he was going
to the barn and do the milking. The hours passed, and the step-daughter being very much
alarmed, opened the door and screamed for the neighbors, but she was not heard. She said
Tuesday morning that she did her best to summon some one to go in search of her aged
step-father. It is not known why she failed to leave the house and herself make a
search.
Mr. Beekman's wife has been sick in bed for some time. It is feared that her
husband's tragic death will have a detrimental effect on her. Mr. Beekman is
survived by one son, William Beekman, and three daughters: Mrs. Addie Searles, Mrs.
Catherine Lowery, and Mrs. Monroe Martin, all of Huntington County. One brother, Lewis
Beekman, and one sister, Mrs. John Butler, both of Van Buren, Grant County.